Hallo, eco-conscious viewers, and welcome to today’s Planet Earth: Our
Loving Home. The United Nations has declared 2010 the International
Year of Biodiversity,and on today’s program we’ll explore the impact
of livestock raising on the planet’s flora and fauna.

Earth
is home to countless species, which all cooperate with one another to
maintain the health of the biosphere. We human beings are also part of
the global ecosystem and our lives and survival are closely related to
those of other species.

Dr. Lovejoy (m):
We human beings are living things; we came into existence and
evolved in living systems as part of the ecological systems. Every
time we reduce the amount of biodiversity, we basically impoverish our
own future.

HOST:
Dr. Thomas Lovejoy of the United States has enjoyed a long and
distinguished career having served as the Chief Biodiversity Advisor to
the World Bank, the Executive Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund
– US, and as the Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations
Foundation. Currently he serves as the Heinz Center Biodiversity Chair.

The
Center is a prestigious environmental policy institute in the USA. Dr.
Lovejoy created the idea of “debt-for-nature swaps” between nations.

Dr. Lovejoy (m):
The idea of debt-for-nature swaps is to actually turn the idea of debt
around, and say is there a way that forgiving debt can actually make
conservation and better environmental management take place.

And
it’s basically a matter of forgiving debt in one currency, in return
for the country in question devoting its own currency for conservation
and environmental projects. And nobody knows how much of it’s been done
because there’s no central register, but clearly at least a few billion
dollars worth have taken place and invested in conservation, literally all around the world.

HOST: As part of his important work, Dr. Lovejoy is sounding the alarm that global biodiversity is facing unprecedented threats.